WORLD FOOD DAY 2026 Opening Statement

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Happy World Food Day 2026! 一年一度粮食日今日更胜往日！

Today we celebrate FAO’s 81st birthday – I still remember when I arrived here in 2019, I said, “why do we have the World Food Day?” Many staff did not know that it was FAO’s birthday.

Then, I challenged my colleagues from the Office of Corporate Communications (OCC), I asked them to make a 2x2m cake, to encourage them to think in an innovative way. I suggested they make it with different coloured fruits and edible vegetables, to look like a cake.

For the first time, we celebrated FAO’s birthday with a fruit cake and I said, “we were established 75 years ago, but nobody has celebrated FAO’s birthday”. Coming from China, I know that you cannot forget your ancestors. To honour FAO’s history, we had a celebration with a cake made from raw vegetables and fruit.

I still remember, on that occasion the former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte came and ate a pear.

I am telling you all this because this year’s theme is “Innovate today, Nourish tomorrow.”

Yesterday, I had a short talk with some primary school kids who were visiting FAO for Junior World Food Day, and I told them they should innovate every day.     

FAO’s innovation process and new approach started by celebrating FAO’s birthday with a different type of cake. Today, we are aiming to continue to work hard towards our shared commitment for a world free from hunger, which our ancestors set out in our Constitution as “freedom from want”

I am honoured to welcome esteemed world leaders, partners and friends from around the world who are joining us here in the Plenary Hall at FAO headquarters, and also online. I especially appreciate His Majesty the King of Lesotho and Her Royal Highness the Princess of Jordan, two FAO Goodwill Ambassadors who participate frequently in FAO’s events, not only this one. Please. give them a round of applause.

I was educated that if a good person wants to do the right things once, it is good enough, but if they continue to do it three times, then they become super. The Goodwill Ambassadors with us today have done it for much more than just three times!

For seven years, I have led FAO to deliver results, to be more efficient, more effective and more fit for purpose.

 In many ways, this journey is reflected in this year’s World Food Day theme: “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow.”

And the other day at the Science and Innovation Forum, I said, “Innovate today, enjoy tomorrow”.

Nourish is for the whole society, but if Science and Innovation are only on paper, you have no enjoyment. Only your scientists will enjoy publishing them, but 99.99 percent of society will not enjoy the benefits.

Only through scientific innovation of products does innovation reach the people that need it.

I grew up in a rice-growing family, with several generations living under one roof. However, we enjoyed rice and food, fish also “como pescado”, good flavoured and nutritional, functional food.

Women were at the center of my home and instilled a sense of responsibility in each of us to leave a better future for the next generation.

This formed my lifelong conviction that innovation must serve people and improve lives.

As I said, make innovation relevant to your life and livelihood, your economic development and your region, and the Four Betters. Otherwise, science and innovation, or business innovation will not be relevant.

I dedicated my life to fulfilling this conviction, which also shaped my life as a scientist, a professor, national institution leader, local government official, central government official and now, my longest duty station in one position, eight years, as FAO Director-General. I spent seven years in the local government; only four years as a Vice-Minister; only six years as a Vice-President; and two years working on the Three Gorges Dam.

I met Professor Jeffrey Sachs more than 20 years ago in Beijing, in the global development forum, and we challenged ourselves and I learned from him. We became close friends. Close, but we did not necessarily agree on everything.

At least we had learning, sharing and even debating. That is why it is a healthy, very healthy friendship. We did not even have a chance to eat together at least once a year. In seven years, we only ate just once together, but we still support each other.

Innovation is not only about technology. It is about people.

It is about enabling people to turn knowledge into opportunity, science into solutions, and hope into action.

Yesterday was International Day of Rural Women, and we honoured 100 women heroes from very diverse farming communities across the world: determined women; women heroes. It was a very emotional and joyful day – I do not think we have ever had anything like that before in the 81 years of history of FAO.

I also remember that seven and a half years ago I stood here promising FAO Members that I would empower youth and women - to walk the talk.

I think with yesterday’s events, I closed my biggest chapter of that promise; not only by establishing FAO’s Youth Committee and Women’s Committee, but also by leading the 100 Women Heroes initiative. Maybe I will do a little bit more, but I think that now you can feel the impact.

I look back on my manifesto, which I drew up by myself, so I have all the major tasks in my mind, and I see that I tried to fulfill all my promises, my commitment to the Members - some are better than I expected, for some others we need to do a little bit more, together.

Their passions, determinations, contributions and leading roles of global women, especially in the rural areas, are transforming agrifood systems in their communities and beyond. They are helping to nourish tomorrow.

We always say that they are half the sky, but now in most cases they are even more than half the sky. It depends on the organization, on the unit or on the division, but in general they are already half the sky. Some countries might not reach half the sky, some other countries a little bit more, but we are moving towards that direction.

Today, science provides farmers with tools that our parents and grandparents could never have imagined.

Satellites monitor crops from space and warn us of threats before harvests fail.

Early warning systems can give a farming family time to protect their harvest, their livestock, their livelihoods before droughts, floods or pests destroy an entire season’s work.

Smart irrigation lets farmers produce more food with less water.

Digital technologies connect rural communities to markets, financial services and networks that were once out of reach.

Especially for small holders and rural farmers, this means greater food security, more stable incomes and better opportunities for future generations.

Yet innovation alone is not enough. Its true value lies in reaching the people who need it most, and when it is shared and scaled.

The most effective solutions are when they are developed with the people who use them – by farmers, fishers, pastoralists and rural communities – and are adapted to local realities, supported by investment and partnerships.

Today, the gap between what science can do and what reaches farmers remains too wide.

Narrowing that gap can deliver lasting improvements and has guided the changes I have made at FAO since 2019.

I set out a clear direction, reflected in the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 – unanimously endorsed by FAO Members in 2021 during the pandemic – under the over arch of the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have consistently ensured that science and innovation hold a central and long-term place in FAO's structure.

In support of this pivotal and cross-cutting function, I appointed FAO's first ever Chief Scientist in history and created an Office of Innovation. We certainly need more time and more resources to grow, but the seeds are there, the seedlings are there – give them time and they will grow.

I also reformed and strengthened FAO’s focus on investment and implementation.

The Hand-in-Hand Initiative uses geospatial data to show where investment can have the greatest impact.

The annual Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum connects country priorities with public and private investors.

The Digital Villages Initiative supports rural communities and farmers in harnessing digital technologies,

And the One Country One Priority Product helps farmers bring distinctive local products to wider markets.

Feeding a growing and increasingly urbanized world will require innovation in cities, as well as in rural areas. The Green Cities Initiative I launched in 2020 at the UN General Assembly, during the pandemic, helps cities and towns build healthier food systems and strengthen their links with the rural producers who feed them.

Finally, we are establishing a green economy in the cities. These future cities should be green, clean, and multifunctional, not only for one function.

Together, these initiatives are designed to move proven ideas from pilots into practice.

But successful innovation depends on institutions, infrastructure, skills and partnerships capable of bringing solutions to scale.

It also depends on who has the opportunity to take part in it.

Women contribute as producers, scientists, entrepreneurs and leaders in every region.

Yet barriers to land, finance and technology continue to limit opportunities and potential.

Young people bring new ideas, but they need the means to turn them into livelihoods.

That is why in 2021, I launched the World Food Forum as a global platform - led by youth.

Today, it is the foremost global platform that connects young people with scientists, investors and decision-makers.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The need for innovation has never been greater.

Climate extremes, water scarcity and conflict are placing increasing pressures on agrifood systems.

Innovation will be essential to producing more with fewer resources, reducing environmental pressures and strengthening resilience.

Governments, businesses, researchers, producers and communities all have a role to play.

No single institution can achieve this transformation alone.

Shortly, we will be presenting the FAO Achievement Award to two awardees whose work demonstrates the power of innovation, science and partnership to make informed decisions and strengthen food security.

These achievements remind us that lasting change requires a shared commitment and collective action.

The resilience I learned from my parents and grandparents continues to shape how I see the future.

Each generation inherits knowledge, and each has a responsibility to pass it on.

In China, we know that "科学种田，越种越甜". It means: "if you farm scientifically, the more you plant, the sweeter it gets." This is the promise of innovation for agriculture.

Blue Transformation means you will have more fish to eat; often, when you have more fish to eat, it also teaches you how to fish, not just accepting donations. For many years, FAO depended on donations; now, we are shifting towards helping Members and partners to go fishing for themselves. Now FAO is more and more shifted to how to help Members and partners to go fishing.

Fishing produces more and quicker through aquaculture, not by natural catch. The same for FAO, we have to evolve by ourselves, like fish with proper feed, proper nutrition, and then that fish will grow. No matter how challenging the environment and the water they face.

Let us innovate today, together. And nourish tomorrow, together. Enjoy tomorrow together!

Thank you.